President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday asked schools to hold a "discussion hour" on racism and antisemitism this week, after the rape of a Jewish girl in a Paris suburb added to France's charged social climate ahead of elections.
Three teenagers were arrested this week following a complaint from a 12-year-old girl from Courbevoie, west of Paris, who told police she had been gang-raped while being insulted with antisemitic slurs, the Nanterre public prosecution office said.
The president on Wednesday asked education minister Nicole Belloubet "to organize a discussion in all schools on the fight against antisemitism and racism, to prevent hate speech with serious consequences from infiltrating schools," Macron's office said.